At the break of dawn on 12 march 1930 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi along with his hand selected 78 marchers, all young inmates of the Sabarmati Ashram, started the great salt march at 6.30 in the morning. Thousands of people held an all night vigil outside the ashram there was apprehension that the colonial rulers would not allow Bapu and his Marchers to march. The believed that Bapu would be picked up in the dark of the night. There was apprehension and enthusiasm too. After a ceremonious farewell from the ashram which he was leaving according to his promise of not coming back until winning independence. Kasturba and other ashram women applied ceremonious mark on the marcher’s forehead, then they walked out of the ashram and the fight was on..
The paused at Gujarat Vidhyapeeth, the university established by Gandhi, here again he was given ceremonious welcome and bid farewell, then they set off to walk. A few kilometers along the road they climbed down on the river bed of Sabarmati, the river was dry and they crossed it, nearing the other bank just before reaching Jamalpura. Bapu bid farewell to Kasturba and requested her and the other ashram women who had accompanied them to leave and return to the ashram. Then the 61 year old leader with his band of 78 hand picked marchers, marched on. He was given rousing send off by the citizens of Ahmedabad and thousands accompanied him on the day’s march.
Their first midday halt was near a small lake called Chandola where they halted and rested for the afternoon and Gandhi addressed a meeting of locals impressing upon them the importance of breaking the salt law. At 4:00 pm they commenced the march.
From Chandola they marched to Aslali, a village on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. Here they halted for the night. At Aslali Bapu addressed the villagers and appealed to all the Government employees from the village to quit as a mark of protest against the colonial government’s inhuman rule over India, he also reprimanded the villagers that there was not a single charkha being used in their village. One of the repeated messages of Dandi march was Bapu’s advocacy of khadi and hand spinning and the importance of being self reliant. On the first day of Dandi march the marchers walked 22 km, after the public meeting, Bapu spent some time spinning khadi, what he called compulsory bread labour, then Bapu and band of marchers rested.